Evidence and intelligence are really important for ensuring that the services and interventions you commission or deliver will meet the needs of your target population in the optimum way.
Firstly, you should ensure that any new service or intervention you’re planning is aligned with your strategic priorities and objectives.
You should then seek out robust evidence of the specific needs of your target population and the most effective ways to meet those needs. It’s important to think about specifics, because some interventions work for some cohorts or in some types of settings and not in others. Use the search tool on Hertfordshire’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) website to see if there’s a JSNA report available on a relevant topic. You can also look for relevant NICE guidance or search on Google Scholar for published peer-reviewed research on your subject.
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) objectives is really important, as this will help focus the design of your intervention and ensure that you can properly assess its effectiveness.
When trying out a new type of service or intervention, or applying it to a different type of cohort for the first time, it’s usually best to run a pilot in the first instance so that you can test out whether it will be effective and pick up on any issues that need ironing out before rolling out on a large scale or committing funding long-term. Building robust evaluation into your design from the outset if crucial, so that you can gather good evidence of what is and isn’t working and know whether the intervention is delivering on its objectives.
Take a look at our information on evaluation to see what tools and support we have to offer.
It’s also worth checking out our ‘Evidence Heroes and Villains’ video series to get some quick pointers on the dos and don’ts of good evidence-based planning and decision-making.
Depending on your needs, timescale and our capacity, we may be able to provide bespoke help with intervention design and evaluation. Get in touch to find out more.